Door Detail, Bury Parish Church

Door Detail, Bury Parish Church, originally uploaded by fotofacade.

Victorian iron work at its very best. Here on the vestry door at Saint Mary the Virgin Bury, Lancashire UK.

Metal

Door furniture Selby Abbey, originally uploaded by fotofacade.

Metal is a material which has been used in every aspect of architecture - from providing waterproof covering to holding the doors onto the frame.

Even though it is largely the Georgians and Victorians which initiated the apotheosis of the use of metal in buildings, it has been used for structural and decorative purposes for thousands of years. It is known , for example, that the Roman Pantheon had a bronze roof.

For decoration there is nothing like metal to bring detail into relief (see the photo of a door at Selby Abbey above)

Key moments in the use of metal as a structural form relate to its first use to construct a bridge at Ironbridge in Shropshire by Abraham Darby in 1779 and the building of the Crystal Palace by Joseph Paxton in 1851

To see a comprehensive set of images showing the use of metal in architecture see here

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A Day at Kings Manor continued...

Blacksmith Don Barker working on a leaf motif at the skills event at Kings Manor

All participants were members of the York Consortium For Conservation and Craftsmanship

More photo's from the event in the next post...

There are more events organised by the SPAB Yorkshire Regional Group including visits to Kirkstall Abbey in May, Nostell Priory and Knedlington Old Hall in June, and Darnall Crucible Shops in September.

SPAB website is here
Conservation Courses at University of York Kings Manor
You can view all of my images of York Minster here
You can view all of my images of York here

Note: Unfortunately I did not get all the names people and companies who attended the event. Members can be viewed at the York Consortium For Conservation and Craftsmanship, or if you took part, please drop me a line and I will gladly give an honourable mention to companies and people shown in the photos.

Cheesden again

Hiked it over to the Cheesden Valley today amidst the icy blasts and snow. The valley is time frozen, in a state of serene industrial archaeology ranging from the remains of an C18th waterpowered mill (with wheel shaft still intact) to the latest state of the art C19th mill further down the valley. All in all we have the full gamut of industrial development of the cotton industry represented in this 2 mile valley. Here we still have the tangled stone, slate and iron remains of over 14 mills. Here we have the remains of a Dickensian industrial landscape with lodges, tailraces, and weirs.

I spent a pleasurable hour photographing sculpted and patterned stone parapets, now half submerged beneath the pack horse bridge in the stream. Further down the valley near the remains of the Deeply Vale Mill there lies a classical stone pediment, once proudly situated over the door of 'the old house' .

The valley has survived because it is so difficult to get to. It is being allowed to decay over time and there is no central interest at present looking after it.

My aim is to record as much of the remaining features as possible before they disappear. I am going to put them onto a Google Earth map just like my Manchester one.

I particularly wanted to photograph one mill today called Washwheel Mill situated half way down the valley and built around the mid C19th. The chimney remains as well as the scouring becks and corroded pipe (photo above) linking the lodge with the mill.

I took a landscape photo of part of the valley today and I have put it onto my photoblog site. You can view it here.

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